Who says Mircrosoft is all Bad

[Shaman]

I like the Microsoft's 'Surface' technology. But it is not ergonomic to have such a interface on a table. I mean, it's really not comfortable to sit on the floor and bend over a table.

Remi

YYEEESSSS!!! Somebody else finally said it! Thank you Remi! I sincerely hate being the one to point out all the major drawbacks. If it was wall or otherwise vertically mounted, not only to avoid the ergonomics problem but to avoid having things placed on it and scratching up what is bound to be a soft screen. Not a bad idea, just impractical execution.
Scott

[remi]

Thank you Remi!

The pleasure is all mine.

Remi

[pauland]

Hmm, the demo looked good but I have seen similar interfaces elsewhere.

The demo ran on a laptop and it may have been a very choreographed demonstration. You see a mass of pictures but in fact it may be that that only some of them can be zoomed into and manipulated. It's also possible that the laptop is highly specced and the demo images are being cached by the software for the purposes of the demo.

In terms of zooming in the software was using a mosaic of pictures that provided the detail according to the zoom. It was explained that the position of the pictures was used to implement the tiled zoom. In practice this could involve a lot of work providing the context for a picture to be added to form a zoomable tile.

This is just pure speculation and guesswork on my part. I think the demo was impressive and all I'm saying is that an impressive demo doesn't always turn into a product that is as impressive in it's realisation (either in terms of use or cost).

Just think of the bandwidth you'd need to operate that in real time over a network, or the disk space to provide that zoom facility across a mass of pictures, plus the work required to provide the tiling/zoom information.

I might be completely wrong and any of the masses of pictures could have led us into a completely different set of pictures and zoomable images.

I can see the technology being available as per google earth, but I'm not so sure I'm going to be able to make my own zoomable/tilable world.

[Mike Bailey]

I downloaded the Photosynth Viewer from the link that Ross posted, there are a few more photo collections that you can explore. Its pretty cool.

[pauland]

I downloaded the Photosynth Viewer from the link that Ross posted, there are a few more photo collections that you can explore. Its pretty cool.

OK, it seems I should eat my words - I hadn't followed the link. It looks like a combination of image analysis, pattern recognition and stitcher. OK, I'll believe a man can fly!

Many years ago I went to a conference where a software company demoed some amazing software. I had an opportunity to also see the software "close up" but the person demoing it to me had to follow a set demo - you couldn't "play" with it. About two years later I was involved with the beta programme and I did express surprise that it had taken so long to come to be near to market. I was told that the original demo was more "smoke and mirrors" than anything else and the final implementation was quite different to the demo.

It wasn't a success in the market. On the first day I started using it I thought "Wow, we must use this". Three days later I realised it had some formidable obstacles. Hence my caution.

Seems like we will all be looking at the world very differently from now on. Well done Microsoft!

Paul

[haakoo]

Hi,

Stated by some scientists in January;
"breakthrough in organic materials to use for dataconnection
Which may speedup current internetspeeds to 37.500 times"
So bandwidth may not be an issue in the future

For the table/monitor,you can allways tilt or put some books under it

Gr,Hans

[Soquili]

Hi Hans,

Could you post a link to where you read about the breakthrough with organic materials?

I'm interested in the use of organic materials but everything I have read in the past states that they don't provide fast enough electron flow.

Thanks,

[Ross Macintosh]

Jeff Han of Perceptive Pixel has been developing similar interfaces to the microsoft one for a few years. When I first saw the 'Surface' my first assumption was they had licenced Jeff Han's technology. Reading the 'Source' site, that doesn't seem to be the case. The similarities are remarkable. See for yourself by watching Jeff Han do a demo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q77Cu...related&search=

Anyways it seems to me the coffee table is just a marketing concept that relates to showing the technology facilitating a social usage that is quite different than traditional computing. I think they are trying to show how this technology could bring computing to new areas of our lives & to new customers than is currently addressed by existing computing approaches like desktop systems and notebook computers. I imagine the 'Surface' in a coffee table form would be quite useful in many homes. Not just a way to have your photo collection but also great for checking out content-related websites when you are watching tv, tv sports, or a movie. It might also be fun to play new updated versions on it of traditional board games like monopoly. It would not be a replacement for your home or office computer but a new category of equipment.

I'd also suggest this coffee table isn't just a standard touch-sensitive LCD monitor laid flat. They must have developed a more durable approach to the surface. They would have had to.

Its hard to say if Microsoft's goal is to sell physical 'coffee tables' (like they sell x-box game systems) or just to licence this to OEM's. If the equipment is made & marketed by others I'd suggest we could see lots of different marketing approaches like the 'drafting table' or portable low angle display versions.

Regards, Ross

[haakoo]

Hi Soquili,

You might be right,it's still in early stages of development
There was an article(Dutch) about the future possibilities

Gr,Hans

[Soquili]

Thanks for the pdf file Hans.

The optical materials sounds like they may be what many scientists have been looking for, for almost 30 years. Best possibility to create ultrafast data transfer. Light has little to no heat buildup that occurs with electricity so equipment would operate at cooler temperatures.